Theater Review: Temporal Powers

Aidan Redmond and Rosie Benton
in Temporal Powers
(© Richard Termine)

A Lost Engaging Tale of Greed and Love
By Lauren Yarger
Just what is right and wrong, and who gets to decide? Those questions weigh heavily in the balance of a troubled marriage and poverty in Temporal Powers, the second of Teresa Deevy's plays being resurrected by the fine Mint Theater Company.
Michael and Min Donovan (Aidan Redmond and Rosie Benton) find themselves living in a dilapidated hovel after being evicted from their farm in 1927 Ireland. Dependent on neighbor Moses Barron Eli James) to bring a few scraps of food and a blanket, Min turns on her husband, blaming him for taking away any chance she had at a better life when he was content to be a poor farmer. Mick feels that he has been true to himself by doing the work that was put before him and not seeking wealth.
When Mick finds a sum of money hidden in the dwelling, Min starts making plans for a new life in America. Her husband, wants to do what's right, but even after it appears that no-good Ned Cooney (Con Horgan) hid the money after robbing the post office, Min convinces Mick to consider keeping it. He seeks the advice of their ineffectual priest Father O'Brien (Robertson Carricart).
Convinced that Michael won't heed her wishes, Min plots with Cooney to take the money by force, unaware that Michael might just change what he believes is "right" because of his love for her. Helping and hindering in the process of defining "right" and "wrong" are a group of neighbors: Jim Slattery (Paul Carlin), Ned's long-suffering wife, Maggie (Bairbre Dowling) and Daisy (Fiana Toibin), Moses sharp-tongued mother who disapproves of Lizzie Brennan (Wrenn Schmidt) who has her cap set for Moses. How much has their poverty influenced their morals?
Deevy creates deep and likable characters, despite their flaws, who grapple with some very raw and real issues to which we all can relate, even now,  some nine decades after it was written (the title, after all, refers to the power of wordly situations over spiritual concerns). The Mint's Artistic Director Jonathan Bank, who also directed last year's Wife to James Whelan in the company's Deevy Project, deftly helms Temporal on Vicki R. Davis' simple set on the small stage (a side entrance proves problematic in the scheme of things, but otherwise nicely creates the hovel). There are strong performances across the board here, an we especially can't help but sputter at Toibin's creation of the annoyingly acerbic, smothering mother.
The play runs two and a half hours with two intermissions through Oct. 9 at  311 West 43rd St., NYC. Tickets are available by calling the Mint box office at 212/315-0231 or go to www.minttheater.org
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Great play about great issues. Enjoy.